Chicken Sh!t Republican?

From today's Washington Post we get some quotes from a U.S. Senator running for reelection:

On the Iraq war: "It didn't work. . . . We didn't prepare for the peace."

On the response to Hurricane Katrina: "A monumental failure of government."

On the national mood: "There's a palpable frustration right now in the country."

"We've lost our way, we've gone to the well and we drank the water, and we shouldn't have," he said of congressional Republicans. "You don't go to Congress to become the party that you've been fighting for 40 years." Lamenting "the spending, the finger-pointing, not getting the bills passed," he counseled: "Just shut up and get something done."

Wait, what that? "don't go to Congress to become the party that you've been fighting for 40 years?" Yep, this guy is a Republican.

"Well, you know, I don't know," the candidate said when asked if he wanted President Bush to campaign for him. Noting Bush's low standing in his home state, he finally added: "To be honest with you, probably not."

A pretty damning evaluation of Republicanism from someone on the inside. To bad that this American has the brains to figure out what's going wrong in our country but doesn't have the character to stand up and be counted, to call out his party's leadership on its failings. The Washington Post was only allowed to use the quotes if the candidate remained anonymous.

He spoke of his party affiliation as though it were a congenital defect rather than a choice. "It's an impediment. It's a hurdle I have to overcome," he said. "I've got an 'R' here, a scarlet letter."

This is why such a large portion of the country is angry. They see Republicans more loyal to their party than to the best interests of the country. For a party that runs on 'values' the disconnect between the rhetoric and action is too great. Anybody who's paying attention can see it.

Republicans 2006 Elections George W. Bush